- Brighter Sun. Pacific Sunwear has installed an automated material handling system from Dematic at its new distribution center in Olathe, Kan. The system includes motorized roller conveyors, a sorter, and a put-to-light system. PacSun operates over 900 retail clothing stores geared to the youth market.
- Infiltration. Donaldson Co., a Netherlands-based manufacturer of filtration systems and replacement parts, has implemented Manhattan Associates' warehouse management system at its new European distribution center in Bruges, Belgium. The company credits the software, which is integrated with Vocollect's voice-directed picking system, with helping boost order accuracy to 99.8 percent.
- A shoe in. Averitt Express has been awarded a contract to provide transportation for footwear provider Shoe Carnival. Shoe Carnival operates 307 shoe stores in the Midwest, South, and Southeast. Averitt will now move all of the company's merchandise from its distribution center in Evansville, Ind., to these stores.
- Ten hut. Supply Chain Visions, a consulting firm specializing in supply chain strategy and performance management, has been selected, as a subcontractor to Deloitte Consulting, to provide technical and analytical support to the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA). The DLA has hired the companies to create an enterprise staffing model for assuring optimum inventories and logistics strategies to improve warfighter readiness in the field.
- Coke, por favor. Bepensa, a producer and distributor of Coca-Cola beverages in Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, has implemented a speaker-independent voice system, top- Speech Lydia, from TopVOX Corp. Bepensa, the Yucatan's leading beverage distributor, uses the voice system to pick products and to assure that the beverages are loaded onto the right delivery truck.
- High flying. Lufthansa Cargo has signed a three-year extension of its membership in the Descartes GF-X Exchange to support its global electronic cargo bookings. The service allows Lufthansa's customers to make freight bookings via a Web browser.
- Tanks very much. Dow Chemical Co. is now using Savi's SmartChain Asset Management software to monitor the location and status of hazardous materials in transit in its Toxic Inhalation Hazard (TIH) rail tank car fleet. The Dow Railcar Shipment Visibility solution uses GPS, satellite communication systems, and sensors attached to tank cars to perform the monitoring. The system status can be "pinged" on demand, while automatic alerts signal any security breaches, unsafe temperatures, or impacts to the tank cars.
- Cash and carry. Sheetz, a mid-Atlantic chain of more than 350 convenience stores, has rolled out RedPrairie Site Operations to direct activities at its stores. The software will help Sheetz with cash management, inventory and invoicing, and food service management.
- Where the rubber meets the load. Rubbermaid Commercial Products has selected HK Systems to provide an automated storage solution at its distribution center in Winchester, Va. The system includes 28 rotating fork storage and retrieval machines.
- Lettuce rejoice. River Ranch Fresh Foods will now be shipping its products on CHEP pallets. The Salinas, Calif.-based grower and processor will use pallets from the CHEP pallet pooling system to transport its River Ranch brand produce as well as its Popeye Fresh! brand of salad kits, spinach, and other vegetables.
- Smart move. Western Container Corp., a manufacturer of plastic bottles, has purchased four SmartCart AGC Automatic Guided Carts from the Jervis B. Webb Co. The SmartCarts chosen by Western are equipped with counterbalanced forks that allow the carts to pick up large bins of in-process bottles for transport to various manufacturing operations.
- Jump in. Howard Tenens, one of the United Kingdom's largest privately held third-party logistics service providers, has implemented HighJump Software's warehouse management system at its Andover, England, warehousing and transport facility. The company, which distributes food, automotive, and paper products for its clients, eventually plans to roll out the system to as many as 14 other locations.
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